Fawlty Towers

The Germans

The Psychiatrist

Communication Problems

Gourmet Night

basically gotta be the germans

I remember a bunch being brilliant, but am not gonna watch all again to vote.

My gut says Waldorf.

Very true - that's why I've given you some short clips. Enjoy!

xp to the good Dr.

Am completely not sure, possibly The Psychiatrist or Basil The Rat but they're ALL worthy (except for The Wedding Party)

Can't find a short clip of Waldorf Salad - so here's a long one.

Is the second series unclean, or somethin'?

WTF, I've just realised I don't think I've ever seen The Wedding Party.

Oh, I LOVE the Wedding Party.

"I can't give you a double room - it's against the law"

the second series is there, it's the last six listed.

anyway, basil the rat

Yeah, six episodes per series only. Shocking lazyness.

only 12 eps all told huh? I was sure it was more like 20.

If only. And I only realised recently that there was a four year gap between series. While John Cleese and Connie Booth tried to decide whether they wanted to spend another moment in each others companywork together again I suppose.

The Wedding Party

"Do you know if there's a chemist still open?"

"You know what? You dis-gust me. I know what people like you get up to and I think it's dis-gusting."
Cleese looks a bit ill in that clip though.

the earlier episodes were always very green looking, don't know if this has been corrected on the dvds

Communication Problems

"Is this a piece of your brain?"

Hang on, is it The Wedding Party or The Anniversary where Polly has to dress up as an ill Sybil? Whichever that one is is the one with a slight dearth of lols imo

that's The Anniversary

ok, I retract everything I said about The Wedding Party, and apply it to The Anniversary

The Kipper and the Corpse, for (a) the sight of Basil with a kipper poking out of his v-neck and (b) the fact that whenever she even thought of it my granny ended up helpless with laughter.

I think it was The Builders that came on when I hadn't seen any of 'em for ages and I thought, oh, this old thing, seen this too many times, not gonna laugh, and then spent its entire length laughing uncontrollably. So, might go for that one.

(though I also thought it was the one with the moose head, which Google tells me was The Germans)

Basil the Rat. For the glee of the final scene - "fuck it, it's the end of the last show, what ludicrous thing can we stick in there for a giant lol? I know! A BLOODY PUPPET!"

germans

The Germans

Just watched Communication Problems - so funny - might have to switch from The Germans.

Mrs....I asked for a room with a view.
Basil Fawlty:That is Torquay, ma'am.
Mrs. Richards: That is not good enough.
Basil Fawlty: Well, may I ask what you were expecting to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window? Sydney Opera House, perhaps? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeasts swinging majestically...

Mrs. Richards: ....I am not satisfied, but I have decided to stay here. However, I shall expect a reduction.
Basil Fawlty: Why? Because Krakatoa's not erupting at the moment?

I think I agree with Louis about The Anniversary, one of the problems is that Basil is going to so much trouble for Sybil when they have shown so little affection for each other elsewhere. It's a bit sad.

The Anniversary is probably the worst, true but good performance from Ken Campbell in it playing Ken Campbell, as usual. I'm tempted to pick Waldorf Salad, Basil approaches genuine insanity in that one.

I was just trying to remember who that was winding up Basil in the Anniversary. Yeah, they all have redeeming features.

I was watching this with the kids and we got to this bit...

...and they immediately stopped laughing. I don't think they had ever heard the n and w words said on television (possibly never heard the w-word anywhere) and they didn't really know what to make of it.

The Major = BEYOND CLASSIC

Just finished getting through the youtube comments on that video - the full gamut of looniness represented.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

didn't The Germans win based on Cleese's goosestep?

That Major's "n*ggers" but seemed to me:

1) Something that JCleese heard someone say, verbatim
2) Just in case people had decided that the Major was the nicest character in it.

My favourite bit was:

Major (waving newspaper): "Strikes! Strikes! Strikes! Why do we bother, Fawlty?"

Basil (under breath): "I didn't know you did, Major!"

Forgot to vote, but having just watched "Basil the Rat", I think that would have got my vote, there's virtually a luagh every line

A Luagh? Is that Irish? Terrible man for the misspellings.

I think I forgot to vote, but it would have been BTR or The Psychiatrist, which is possibly the best sex farce made in Britain ever.

Didn't see the poll, woulda voted for Psychiatrist or Communication Problems, both of which needed more love.

just watched em all - good points above. found The Kipper And The Corpse most flat-out hilarious!

lol racism

Kipper And The Corpse

to Manuel
Don't you have dogs in Calcutta?

love this show so much.

"hotel inspectors" is prob my favorite with "the germans" a close second.

The fact that The Wedding Party got no votes just shows how great the whole series was. That is now my favourite episode.

Hotel Inspectors is best

I love how rapidly Fawlty's obsequiousness towards Bernard Cribbins vanishes when he finds out he's not actually a hotel inspector.

Yes, and the final few seconds are purest comedy gold...

Fawlty Towers Weddings. Sort of hard to find the words really. smack on head.jpg...

http://www.introed.co.uk/resources/Smack%20on%20head.jpg

Options of a 'Manuel' and 'Sybil' are also available if required.

How much to add Mrs. Richards?

Or the Major?

famous line aside, the germans is so overrated. in my bottom 3 with builders and anniversary. "he got hit on the head so he is behaving strangely" is sitcom barrel-scraping. results otherwise otm, though the wedding party deserved a vote and the psychiatrists deserved another one. (these two are very similar and blur for me but together they're the show's densest farce; plus psychiatrists has how did you become two doctors, did you take the exam twice, or--oh you're a doctor as well! so you're three doctors!) basil the rat probably has the best kicker (not just the puppet but "just the biscuits, then, polly") though it's given a hard run by basil excavating the trifle. and the delivery i think about more than any other is for some reason when basil is complaining about the spoon salesman and suspected hotel inspector's diction: he thinks BOF is a locale. you know, some zone. some province.

Am rewatching these with Cleese's excellent commentary. Some of it is like a masterclass in comedy direction and editing for television with Cleese being critical of himself and choices made throughout.

RIP

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-38178353

extremely dumb PC horseshit

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/jun/11/fawlty-towers-dont-mention-the-war-episode-removed-from-uktv

I'm glad I've lived in the era before most silent comedy was banned...

For the last fucking time:
1) It’s not because of the war
2) It’s about repeated use of the N word
3) BBC edited the offending scene in 2013
4) Cleese fully approved of it
5) Netflix & UKTV were airing unedited version
6) Edited version will likely be used in future https://t.co/Z15ww5fIfB

— Gareth Dimelow (@gdimelow) June 12, 2020

I remember the Major Gower lines very well, and the point stands.

Peter Sellers did a very similar radio bit maybe 15 years earlier.

Didn't know Brits doing lacerating satire of their imperialism was verboten now.

I'm glad that silent comedy is statistically invisible, cuz that'd be next.

a good percentage of Brit viewers don't get the satire bit

Nobody is saying Fawlty Towers is racist, we know the scene is a satire on racist colonial attitudes, it's just that it's not great to have several instances of the N-word popping up in the middle of a fairly lighthearted comedy. They could put a warning at the start and explanation of the context, but as the scene isn't that funny and isn't at all important to the plot, why not just put it up without that scene? If you really must see it, the other version is still available on DVD.

It's not so much the satire, as it is that the language used to express it is nails-down-a-blackboard nowadays. The scene doesn't add anything to the plot, so can be safely excised. Maybe there's unease about Basil's racism in the hospital too, I dunno.
Btw I was re-watching Kind Hearts and Coronets the other week, and that has a totally unnecessary rendition of the eenie-meenie-minie-mo rhyme, racist version. There must be vast amounts of this happening in old films/TV. And let's not mention The Dambusters...

xpost

it's all history as well as art, and to censor it is to misrepresent the past.

i want the uncensored versions of old stuff to continue to exist and be accessible, but yes, most of these culture war panics overlook the fact that it's about commercial broadcasters making business decisions based on a general audience and nothing to do with PC or erasing the past

commercial broadcasters do all sorts of bad stuff to old shows and films and most of it isn't remotely because of censorship

FT isn't "lighthearted"! It's about a misanthrope working in the hospitality business who hates every minute of it (and p much everyone around him).

lots of comedy is like that, I'm saying it isn't late night black comedy fare, it is suitable for daytime broadcast.

imagine you are a young POC who happened across that scene by accident, how would you feel about that?

again, this scene was edited out of BBC broadcasts decades ago, with the approval of Cleese, nobody seemed to notice or care.

that's a 'discussion ender' i'm not going to bite at xp

people should be trusted to figure out intent, context, etc. What's the alternative?

and the concept that ppl should go through life never being confused or offended... best of luck

i'd prefer simple clear content warnings to an edit, i assume there's a reason content providers often choose not to go that route, maybe to do with child filters or something, idk

While we're on the topic, isn't it a shame that Song of the South has never been released for home video?

maybe not in the US...

which probably tells us something about the Disney Company's motivations

It was in the 1980s, I think.

just like the notorious Fawlty Towers

The 'You Must Remember This' series on Song Of The South is exactly the sort of historical context setting that sort of artifact needs, would recommend if anyone hasn't heard it.

John Cleese went on a full-on racist uncle rant just last year and if even he's OK with the edits I don't see why anyone else shouldn't be.

I listened to a 'You Must Remember This' episode on Hattie McDaniel yesterday, but am unlikely to return bcz the host's stilted vocal monotone is a dealbreaker.

The section of the PBS documentary about Walt Disney's life that talks about Song of the South is also great and tells you pretty much everything you need to know about the movie's context, which was 100% shitty from the get-go

John Cleese went on a full-on racist uncle rant just last year and if even he's OK with the edits I don't see why anyone else shouldn't be.

Probably more like 40 years tbf

agreed SOTS 100% shitty from the get-go, I would only think it useful as a historical artefact

fuck you morbs and your kneejerk culture war grievances

eat my ass, bot

"culture war"

cut your head off as u aint using it

booohooo the PC police is silencing my beloved racists and predators

oooh John Cleese, infamous PREDATOR

c^^t

you mean cunt why are you precensoring yourself

you know what i mean fuck you

Was it ever explained why there's a specific reference to the original 'Ministry Of Silly Walks' sketch randomly thrown into that bit in The Germans? The studio audience knew it was meant to be a Pythonian thing i guess, judging from their raucous reaction? I know he calls it 'the funny walk' as opposed to 'silly' though.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen it but isn’t he goosestepping there?

I always hated FT and this wasn't helped by my elders and betters constantly telling me Cleese is "the funniest man in the world" throughout the 80's when I was into ..erm the likes of Blackadder 2, Eddie Murphy and Saturday Night Live ... oh dear!

xp i guess yeah but his bendy leg bit where he turns around is unmistakably Pythonian.

Doing a straight goosestep wouldn't be as funny. Who knows, maybe Connie Booth wrote the line in question?

Strangely thrilling to see the Major popping up in 60s British sci-fi flick, "The Night Caller", and have John Saxon offer him a cigarette.

Wiki rabbit hole tells me that Yvonne 'Mme. Peignoir' Gilan was the mother of A. A Gill, which seems a harsh burden to bear for anyone.

Poor woman.